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Monday, May 28, 2012

Retire Monaco: I Can't Believe I'm Saying This!

I know that I go on and on about the tyres and the DRS and the KERS and how the three combine to create artificial racing, with Pirelli being the major culprit this year but what we saw in Monaco was utterly processional, with the exception of Vettel's drive which was, from a strategy perspective, Masterful.

I can't believe that I'm going to say this: It may well be time for Monaco to be dropped from the calendar. We've known for some time that it is an anachronism, a throwback to a bygone era when the cars were smaller, narrower, and slower with less grip, no electronics, and no driving aids. Overtaking was possible and happened with regularity.

Yesterday's GP served to highlight the limitations of the circuit. The fact that every driver from Rosberg back, every commentator, every journalist and spectator prayed for rain is a damning indictment of the ability of this historic circuit to stage a modern Grand Prix.

The fact that it waited until the race was over showed that even Ecclestone doesn't have the ear of Heaven.

The only points of interest throughout the race were Vettel's superb drive, Red Bull's complimentary strategy and Heikki's brilliant drive for Caterham.

Other than the foregoing the GP was nothing more than an F1 procession through the Principality. Let's face it, even in the late eighties overtaking was nigh on impossible and the '90's (remember Mansell chasing Senna down but not being able to pass?) were generally unspectacular. This century, no, this Millennium represents the final nail in the coffin for Monaco unless...

Well F1 has two options for the Monte Carlo track -

1. They all drive historic F1 cars from the 40's/50's once a year at Monaco, or

My thing is that I don't mind a race without overtaking but at least at other tracks there is the potential for overtaking, At no stage yesterday did I feel that Rosberg could overtake Webbo, that Hamilton, or Alonso or Massa could move up the rankings on-track, and let's face it, regardless of how well Heikki drove - when a McLaren can't overtake a Caterham on-track there is a serious problem with the track.

It's time to retire Monaco (I just can't believe that I'm saying that)